1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an image recorder for directing an optical beam onto an image recording material such as a plate mounted on a drum to record an image on the image recording material.
2. Description of the Background Art
Conventionally, there is known an image recorder which comprises a cylindrical drum for mounting an image recording material on the outer peripheral surface thereof, a rotative drive mechanism for rotating the drum about a rotary shaft disposed along the axis of the drum, and a recording head for directing an optical beam modulated in accordance with an image signal onto the image recording material. Such an image recorder is adapted to record a desired image on the image recording material by directing the optical beam from the recording head onto the image recording material mounted on the outer peripheral surface of the drum being rotated at high speeds and by moving the recording head in a direction parallel to the rotary shaft of the drum.
For example, an image recorder disclosed in Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 2000-56467 is designed such that for the purpose of feeding an image recording material to a drum, the image recording material is temporarily placed on a tray angularly disposed on the drum, and is then fed out of the tray toward the surface of the drum. The image recording material is placed onto the angularly disposed tray from above the upper edge of the tray.
When a small-size image recording material is used, the above-mentioned technique can be employed to place the image recording material on the tray. However, the use of a large-size image recording material entails an accordingly large-size tray, making it difficult to feed the image recording material from above the upper edge of the angularly disposed tray onto the tray.